It isn’t just the ties.
Donald Trump has taken some grief for the fact that his signature neckties are made in China. But the scope of Trump-branded products made outside America is larger than has previously been reported — especially when that includes the clothing line named after Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, which is listed on the Trump Organization website as part of the Trump empire.
Thousands of items with the Trump name on them — furniture, shirts, shoes, salad bowls, even “Trump body soap,” and much of Ivanka’s growing jewelry and clothing line — have been made by companies, often paying Trump simply for the use of his name on their goods, that employ foreign workers.
Clothing and home goods are a small part of Trump’s fortune. His total income from licensed home goods was between $2.5 million and $13.1 million, according to his personal financial disclosure.
These Trump company business decisions are directly at odds with the central message of his presidential campaign: a promise to bring back jobs that have been sent abroad.
“I am going to bring jobs back to the United States like nobody else can,” Trump said in his closing statement at last week’s debate in Detroit, ahead of the Republican primary in Michigan on Tuesday.
“I’m going to bring jobs back from China. I’m going to bring jobs back from Mexico and from Japan,” Trump said during the Feb. 13 GOP debate in South Carolina.
In Detroit, Trump admitted he had his clothing line manufactured in China and Mexico. But he claimed that it is “impossible for clothing makers in this country to do clothing in this country.” Trump blamed the Chinese government’s devaluation of the yuan, which helps to make Chinese-made goods cheaper for American consumers than those made in the U.S.
Though many clothing, footwear and home goods companies make their goods in the United States — and there’s even been a small upsurge in higher-priced specialty brands locating manufacturing in Los Angeles, the current center of American garment manufacturing — the U.S. textile and apparel industry has been decimated since the 1990s, thanks to a combination of global trade deals and the North American Free Trade Agreement. The industry lost more than 900,000 jobs between 1994 and 2005, and even when companies do want to locate textile industry jobs in America, it can be hard to find skilled garment workers.
Manufacturing outside the U.S. may be good business for a billionaire like Trump. But in the political arena — where campaigns go to absurd lengths to secure and sell only made-in-America goods and drive only made-in-America cars — Trump’s business deals stand out for being as impolitic as his speech.
It turns out that a huge array of Trump brand products are made in Asia or South America, countries where — as he told CNN this past summer — “the laborers are paid a lot less, and the standards are worse when it comes to the environment and health care and worker safety.”
Trump, like most celebrities who monetize their fame, does not always manage the day-to-day operations of the companies that make goods with his name on them, instead making licensing deals and receiving payments simply for the use of his name as a brand. It’s the same approach he has taken to real estate: There are 17 properties in Manhattan with the Trump name on them, but Trump owns only five of the buildings.
Nonetheless, public data collected by a private company, ImportGenius, which gathers export and import information, shows Trump products outsourcing jobs back to 2006. And the trend has intensified over the past few years. Since 2011, around 1,200 shipments of goods with the Trump name on them have come to the U.S. from other countries. Our Principles PAC, a super-PAC opposing Trump, compiled the data from ImportGenius into an Excel spreadsheet (viewable here) with 1,356 shipments going back to 2006.
And this is a conservative estimate, since the ImportGenius data compiled by Our Principles only listed items that included Trump’s name on the “bill of lading,” a certificate issued by carriers to ensure that exporters receive payment and importers get the goods they’ve paid for. Sometimes, product marks or labels are not included in shipping records.
A large portion of the increase in outsourcing has come from the Ivanka Trump clothing line. The Trump outsourcing data includes shipments received as recently as last month. In fact, there were 50 shipments in February, almost all of them of women’s clothes and shoes for Ivanka Trump’s fashion line.
Trump is seeking to win the White House by appealing to resentment among working class voters in parts of the country that have been hurt by outsourcing. But he has not always been a critic of the practice.
“We hear terrible things about outsourcing jobs — how sending work outside of our companies is contributing to the demise of American businesses. But in this instance I have to take the unpopular stance that it is not always a terrible thing,” Trump wrote in a Trump University blog item in 2005.
The Economic Policy Institute, a D.C. think tank affiliated with organized labor, estimated in 2014 that since 2001 Chinese workers had taken more than 3 million jobs from Americans. Those in favor of free trade argue that commerce between countries ultimately increases economic growth and helps lift the country as a whole, but few dispute that free trade has also negatively impacted parts of the country that relied heavily on manufacturing jobs.
And while Trump has also railed against immigrants taking jobs in the U.S. from American workers, there are some inconsistencies in his own record on that count as well. His Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, hired only 17 American workers out of 300 who applied, and instead employed hundreds of foreign-born workers for seasonal jobs.
Politicians are bums.
this should surprise no one
That’s kind of the point. As a businessman, Trump knows all too well how our trade agreements, laws, regulations, etc.,etc., are such that outsourcing jobs is the way for a businessman to make money in the current arena. As a businessman he made reasonable decisions to make money for his companies.
As president he plans to make the necessary changes to make it good business to keep the jobs here in the States. That is exactly what must be done if we are to survive as a nation. I wholly believe Mr. Trump is sincerely there for this country, and will do what needs to be done to turn things around and make our country great again.
Please don’t waste your time criticizing or berating me. At this stage in the game if you’re still against Trump, I doubt you’ll change you’re mind any more than I will be changing mine 🙂
“I wholly believe Mr. Trump is sincerely there for this country, and will do what needs to be done to turn things around and make our country great again.”
Then you know absolutely nothing of the true nature of the NWO. Chump is only there because he’s ALLOWED to be. But that aside, can you explain exactly WHY a BILLIONAIRE would give a rat’s @ss about you, yours, or this country. Are you truly that ignorant of the fact that rich people only care about two things… accruing as much mammon as is humanly possible, and accruing as much power as is humanly possible – to safeguard all that mammon.
“Please don’t waste your time criticizing or berating me.”
Believe me, this is me being extremely kind about this subject. I will do neither. I simply find it amazing that people still idolize & worship these snake oil salesmen, instead of seeing through the illusion. But then again, I have to remember that television is THE best brainwashing tool ever invented, so taking that fact into account, I guess that explains a good deal of it. Big Pharma would add another fair sized chunk into the equation.
All I can tell you is, if you honestly believe there’s anyone who isn’t totally controlled by the Zionist jews, or that they wouldn’t kill if they couldn’t control them, then you are in for a seriously rude awakening, my friend. There is no knight in shining armor that’s going to save the country.
The people we’re dealing with are murderers, liars & thieves, of the highest order. They intend to eliminate about 95% of the world’s population. And do you know the ONLY thing stopping their New World Order at this particular point in time? The hundreds of millions of guns in the hands of the American people.
So do yourself a favor & FORGET about ANY kind of political/diplomatic solution to our problem. We’re WAY beyond that anymore. That kind of thinking will only get you killed.
They’re only leaving us ONE option… kill or be killed (or totally enslaved).
Buy more ammo.
I agree with you that Donald Trump understands international trade and has stated that he is for international trade.
What you appear too blind to see is that as long as our trade is open and a part of the international trade, there is an undeniable fact that cannot be ignored and that is that the only way you can compete with slave labor is with closed trade, not a part of the international slave system.
Donald Trump intends that industry and the final rape of our resources will occur and the manufacturing will be done here in the United States at a slave wage, as there is no other way that this can occur.
The only way you can compete with slave labor is with slave labor, unless you have closed markets protected at a national level from the international slavery.
Oh, and do you truly believe that Donald Trump is going to deport the re-colonization alternate slave work force that will be finishing the rape of our resources? As he is already back peddling on that assertion.
Henry, I am suspicious of anyone who still thinks voting and elections are anything more than a sideshow on the way to tyranny. Hence, my opinion of “JVC” is that he/she is a paid shill, particularly when the closing comment is “Don’t waste your time criticizing or berating me” – an attempt at getting the propaganda in place without being responsible for it.
BAH!
The stupid people are bound to be stupid, but we cannot let any bullshit assertion go unchallenged.
I can hear them all right now, when it is all over and the candidate becomes the government agent: “I can’t believe he is doing this.” “I can’t believe he is doing that.” “I can’t believe I fell for it.”
These are weak people that must be removed in the end if we are to know any measure of security within our rights for the future.
I assure you I am not a paid shill. I just believe (foolishly? maybe so) that there are a few good people left in the world who have money. Few and far between for sure.
Donald Trump is a very intelligent man (if you want to look at IQ for measure of intelligence). I’m very certain he is taking extreme measures to protect his life at this point.
As for the original topic, he intends to do (at least he says he does) what has been needed for a long time, even the playing field the way it should be leveled, the only way it really can be leveled- Taxing imports so that it is in everyone’s best interest to keep their companies here and stop bringing in goods produced in countries where the wages are lower than ours. Of course there is more to it than “taxing imports”, but that is the jist of it.
Again, yes, I believe Donald Trump cares about our country and wants to turn things around. That’s not to say I am counting on him, I have my AR15’s and plenty of ammo…it may very well be too late whether he’s for real or not.
Looks like somebody thinks that he can somehow vote his way out of the situation we all find ourselves in. No matter how much we would all like a peaceful resolution it’s just not going to happen. Your ballot box is illusory and it always has been. It didn’t just suddenly become real because Trump decided to start mouthing off. Your falling for the “hope and change” all over again. Good luck voting. Your going to need it.
It’s so F’ed up these days, I guy can no longer just roll up his shirt sleaves, dive into the elbow grease, put in an honest day’s work, and keep up.
Cash under the table is the best way to go but good luck finding work. It’s out there, but you have to “know” someone.
I do some fencing, only ’cause I’m really good at it, but I ain’t got no ads in the paper. Word of mouth and quality workmanship is my best advertising.